Now that the flood has been declared “over” by the geniuses at the Army Corps, the discussion about repairs to the levees has shifted to center stage.
Or, rather, the discussion about which levees whey won’t be repairing…
As it turns out, the Army Corps won’t be repairing all of the damage – that they caused in the first place – to levees north of Kansas City. The St. Joseph area will feel the brunt of this new “development” (read: fresh hell).
Due to limited resources, the corps will not be able to make repairs to every structure that sustained damage, said Col. Anthony Hofmann, Kansas City District commander.
Decisions have already been made that affect St. Joseph and Elwood. The corps has identified its top five levees for repair in the Kansas City District, and the St. Joseph and Elwood Gladden levees didn’t make the cut.
The top five levees the corps identified for repairs in the Kansas City District are Union Township (Holt County), Bean Lake (Platte County), Rushville Sugar Lake (Buchanan County), Holt County No. 10 and Wakenda (Carroll County).
Right now, the top five are the only ones guaranteed for funding, said Josh Marx, natural disaster program manager.
Failing to act to repair these levees, especially considering the complete mismanagement of the river by the Army Corps that led to the massive flood in the first place, is begging for catastrophe and will be nothing short of manslaughter if the crumbling levees fail during another one of their “accidental” floods.
But they’re holding out hope, or at least dangling the carrot of false hope:
Corps officials in Kansas City express hope that the St. Joseph and Elwood levees will get funding. But the reality is that since the 1993 flood, which breached the Elwood Gladden levee, those two levees still haven’t been repaired to the level the corps says is necessary. Corps officials in Kansas City and Omaha are saying they don’t have money to do additional work.
“Hope” isn’t something to put stock in, or haven’t we learned our lesson from the last presidential election. And considering they never adequately fixed the levees that were damaged eighteen years ago and they don’t currently have the money to spend there’s no “hope” for fixing this in the near future.
If only the protection of American lives and property were as important to the federal government as loans to bankrupt “green” companies or running guns to Mexico or socialized medicine seem to be…
- B.H.
WHy should we begin to look to the culprit for the cure ?
The Corps has relinquished their claims on the levee system and the farmers should take them back, fix them, and deduct the costs from their taxes. the counties should assess the rest of the costs to the residents and help. the federal has no interests there anymore and certainly no constituency
Posted by: flownover | October 21, 2011 at 10:40 AM